Topics - megatone

2CD compilation Joint Efforts – The album released by the EMPortal community has been reviewed by Artemi Pugachev from Saint Petersburg in his Encyclopedia of Electronic Music. His review of my track portal To Hyperspace follows.Many thanks Artemi!

Megatone opens up "Portal To Hyperspace" with a majestic, symphonic piece that beats all non-electronic soundtracks to sci-fi epics to dust. It's grand, solemn, symphonic, electronic, cosmic, optimistic and everything in between. If we don't destroy each other, our future in space will be bright, and when they open up the first portal to hyperspace, they should really have this as their soundtrack. This great piece of music finishes off the first disc in a truly outstanding fashion.

On the 31st of May the EMPortal community of artists has released a factory pressed 2CD compilation entitled EMPortal – The Album, featuring tracks by 20 electronic artists from around the globe. It also includes composition Portal To Hyperspace by Megatone alias Marcel Gherman.

Album Five Elements is a set of audio installations that represent the five elements, Water, Metal, Fire, Earth and Ether, by artificial sound design. Each track has a temporal development similar to the form of a traditional composition, thru an initial state of equilibrium, followed by a disbalance that ends in a new equilibrium. At the same time each piece can be listened in a loop as an atemporal non-evolutive sonic background. Each track is manipulated in real time, I played on the sound of water or fire like on a musical instrument, borrowing the nuances and expression learned from playing piano.

Netlabel Audiotong from Poland has released its new compilation Artek – Experimental Music from Beyond the Courtain, featuring experimental artists from countries of the former Iron Curtain – Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Macedonia, Tatarstan, Uzbekhistan and Ukraine.

Album “Total Sensory Void” is about experiments with sensory deprivation. Technoshamanism is a domain that explores visionary voyages, altered states of consciousness and hypnotic trance induced by technological means. There have been conducted experiments in which a subject was introduced in a water tank, with eyes covered and a breathing mask, isolating him from all sensory signals. During the first 15 minutes the subject’s mind was dominated by residual thoughts. After that came a period of discomfort and panic, which, if overcome, was followed by a series of unbelievable visions. Avicena stated in a text that if a person would be suspended in void, with no sensory impulses, that person would still be conscious of his self and of the fact that he exists.The album is a single morphing repetitive pulse generated out of a sine. It is inspired by a short story in progress by Marcel Gherman. An excerpt from this story follows:

He woke up in an endless ocean of void. He was suspended in nothingness, surrounded by a monolith of absolute darkness and silence. There was no up or down. His mind tried in vain to grasp a point of orientation.There was no memory. Only the conscience of his self and the awareness that he existed. He felt his breath inhaling slowly an air without scent. Then he became aware of the silent pulse of his heart, beating monotonously in the rhythm of a muffled drum. So a few long moments passed by.Gradually the walls of darkness began to close in on him. He felt a discomfort that turned into panic. His limbs started shaking, his muscles were contracting in violent spasms. Flashes of tremendous pain were piercing throughout his body. His perception drifted in chaos.Then the tormenting pain dissipated like a fading storm, passing into a state of absolute calm. A profound feeling of bliss took over him. He breathed slowly.Suddenly he saw a faint light in the distance. He wasn’t sure if it was real or just a mirage. Then he understood that it wasn’t his natural eyes, but the eye of his mind that was watching it. The light became closer and he saw a gigantic luminescent medusa floating in void towards him.

David MacFadyen, professor and chief of the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Los Angeles (UCLA) has wrote an article about Megatone alias Marcel Gherman on his website portal Far From Moscow, dedicated to the music phenomenon in the post-Soviet region. The article is entitled How to apply Hindu philosophy to post-Soviet society. Also an article about David MacFadyen and his website project has been published in the printed magazine of the University of California, read throughout USA.

Mix MEGATONE ANTHOLOGY now released on netlabel Silent Flow (Moldova).Anthology covers last 5 years of Megatone's music activity. Divided into 3 parts – TERRA, AQUA and CAELUM - with total duration of 1 h 33min it depictures its author's musical searches in the worlds of ambient, IDM, space, ambient experimental and cinematic neoclassical. The download contains a playlist text file with links to all releases that the tracks are taken from.

Cinematic symphonic synthesizer music. Large scale orchestrations alternating with quiet ambient space compositions, dominated by hyperreal sound design. Almost all sounds are originally synthesized, including artificial sounds of rain, water, forest, fire. Album Pure Land is a journey into a land of magic, thru jungles and seas, thru cities of the future and ancient temples, inspired by a recent fantasy literary project of Marcel Gherman alias Megatone. Tracks from the album have been broadcasted on various FM and AM radiostations from around the world. In reviews Pure Land is mentioned as "...Highly cinematic symphonic synthesizer music... Blue Skies Over Arcadia is a very emotional and diverse track... Portal To Hyperspace builds to a crescendo before adopting an almost Bach-like approach, with organ chords completely dominating the score." --Encyclopedia of Electronic Music, "...Blue Skies Over Arcadia and Portal To Hyperspace are sweeping, symphonic outing of electronic textures." --Sonic Immersion, "...Marcel Gherman is a master of timbre. The engineering and synthesis are extremely competent." --After Enigma

Here is a video of the performance in the 60X60 Dance project, combining track Obsidian by Marcel Gherman (Megatone) with a choreographic dimension interpreted by dancer Aja Graves. 60X60 International Mix is a project of electroacoustic music organized by Vox Novus Foundation (New York). Composition Obsidian by Marcel Gherman was featured in the 60X60 International Mix 2007, presented at over 15 venues with public in USA and abroad, including presentations at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, also featuring a visual dimension created by video artist Zlatko Cosic, and was published on CD in 2000 exemplaires edition.

Album Pure Land available at digital label Tibprod Italy.http://www.tibprod.com/italy/electronic-music-mp3-megatone_pure_land.htmStyle: Cinematic neoclassical, Ambient spaceTracks Blue Skies Over Arcadia and Moksha available as free download.In reviews on album Pure Land it is mentionnd as: "...Highly cinematic symphonic synthesizer music."(Encyclopedia of electronic Music), "...Tracks Blue Skies Over Arcadia and Portal To Hyperspace are sweeping, symphonic outing of electronic textures" (Sonic Immersion), "Marcel gherman (Megatone) is a master of timbre. Synthesis and sound engineering are extremely competent" (After Enigma).Tracks from album Pure Land have been presented on international FM and MW radiostations, in shows such as Bill Fox's Galactic Travels and the AM-FM show (USA), Atmosphere and Codos Traumreisen (Germany), Silent Running (Luxemburg), Articmist (Spain), on Resonance FM and Terry Hawke's Chill Out Sessions (UK) and others.

This album is inspired by Marcel Gherman alias Megatone’s father’s book “Language In The World Of The Unspoken” about animal language. An excerpt from the book is added. Admiring nature’s beauty and perfection we become closer to a deeper understanding, to an inner truth that defies all conflicts and suffering of our harsh human world.

“…In the captivating book by famous soviet naturalist V.V. Lunkevich “Biology for fun” we find the following text, which seems to be, by its colourfulness and diversity, even more majestic than any fairytale scene: “He saw an extraordinary image. In front of him are passing by, sometimes in compact groups, sometimes one by one, some strange beings: at first they seem like umbrellas or bells – they are small size medusas, spreading a light sometimes blue, or green, or yellow, or purple. Among these moving lights floats peacefully, without signs of hurry, a giant medusa with an umbrella measuring 60-70 centimeters in diameter. A little farther there are fishes spreading light. As a lightning passes the moonfish, which indeed seems like a moon on the background of the other luminescent fishes. One of the fishes has “burning” eyes, another has on its head some kind of appendix, whose edge is like a lighting bulb, another one has a long wire hanging from its inferior jaw, like a little “lamp”, and other fishes “burn” completely, this because of some organs situated along their bodies like lighting bulbs spread on a string… On the bottom of the sea, among rocks and algae there are lurking mollusks and luminescent worms. On their bodies they have bright lines, spots or points shining like diamonds in light; on the openings of the underwater rocks throne starfishes also flooded in light, here also we find a lobster that lightens its way with its gigantic eyes, seeming like spread out telescopes, examining its hunting terrain.”The phenomenon is not less interesting when it is witnessed by a sensitive observer situated out of the water. This is how K. Paustovski saw it: “The sea was burning! I started to watch carefully. Even now I can’t believe that what I’ve seen was real. In such cases people tend to say that reality seems like a dream, but it’s not true. The sight in front of me seemed more wonderful than the most beautiful dream. The sea was simply burning. It seemed that its bottom was made out of marble lightened from below by a moonlike fire. The light was spreading to the horizon and there, where the darkness became like a violet ink, the sky was shining as if it were covered by a silver fog. The large line of light faded slowly. But after a short period of darkness, the sea transformed itself again into a sky full of stars, unknown, dropped to our feet. Billions of stars, hundreds of Milky Ways were floating under the sea. Fading out, they dived to the very bottom, or relightened, rising to the surface. The eye discriminated two types of light: one still, balancing slowly on the water, and another – all in continuous motion, slashing the water in rapid and violent flashes. It was the awakened fishes agitating underwater. The white fire was spreading out towards the beach and you could see clearly the bottom of the sea. Stones and tin objects were covered by a thin burning layer… I was witnessing one of the greatest phenomena in the world”.”

New album “Fractal Landscape” released on netlabel Load And Clear from Belgium. Album “Fractal Landscape” studies the transformation of time into space, and of sound into multidimensional panoramic structures. It seems like a deconstructed Japanese garden, or a secret temple situated in between dimensions.

Thousands of multicoloured ramifications start to cover the space. They remind of a DNA structure and of the branches of a gigantic tree. It’s a digital sculpture, composed from particles of Quartz, Coral and Emerald, Ivory, Amber and Obsidian, Gold, Silver and Diamond.

Unreal seeming yet more real than life,Truer than things trueIf dreams these were or captured images,Dream’s truth made false earth’s vain realities.--Sri Aurobindo

Album „The Book Of Dreams volume 1” is a journey into the misty world of dreamscapes. Symbolic hypnagogic images represent deeper aspects of the human soul. These symbols and archetypes are vessels for a volume of knowledge, meanings and interpretations far larger than it could be ever expressed thru spoken language.As the rules and laws of the material world are made obsolete, in dreams all people experience a profound feeling of freedom that can be compared to the one of flying. In dreams we become closer to understanding the ultimate reality of things. This album is an attempt to bring the deeper darker side of human consciousness into the world of daylight, and create a balance between experience and rational knowledge, between feeling and sense, Bhakti and Jnana, philos and sophia. The soundscapes on the album are portrayed loosely, inspired by the faint colours of impressionist paintings. A major sourse of inspiration were the techniques of visualisation used in buddhism and hinduism and a recent literary project by Marcel Gherman, a short story in progress.

Recommended for fans of Vangelis, The Orb and Jerry Goldsmith. Album Pure Land includes 18 tracks and has been quoted in Artemi Pugachev s Encyclopedia of Electronic Music as highly cinematic symphonic synthesizer music. The full review by Artemi Pugachev may be read on the same link.

The album is a collection of vast sounding neoclassical cinematic music combined with hyperreal sound design. The material was gathered during several years of work. All sounds are originally synthesized and also feature originally synthesized sound of rain, water, fire, forest. It is a journey into an ethereal realm of magic, inspired by one of Marcel Gherman s recent fantasy literary projects. Some of the tracks on album Pure Land were broadcasted on international FM radiostations.

Inspired by the place he grew up, Megatone (from Moldova) gives us an intense musical meditation. With wonderful eerie soundscapes ranging from passive introspect to more attentive ambient of various forms, he takes us on a voyage through the mulberry forest, as the title suggests. Hauntingly chill yet warm and comforting, alert and intimate yet distant and dreamy. Join us and on a walk through the mulberry forest...

Megatone’s album “Mulberry Forest Voyage”, released on label Krakilsk in Norway, is inspired from the impressions and atmosphere of village Drutsa. Consisting of almost 80 minutes of music, the album is a diverse collection of multiple highly individual styles. Thru advanced sound design, some of the tracks artificially recreate real environments, as the sound of a forest, river water, summer rain, or an eagle flying in the sky. Some tracks use classical harmonies with a vast symphonic sounding. There are tracks with experimental beats, and deep, dark introspective waveform ambient pieces that explore the inner depths of human soul.

“…As an experienced Experimental Ambient composer, Marcel Gherman is a master of timbre. Megatone's engineering and synthesis is extremely competent; …His music is as polished as any commercial release.”-After Enigma

“…The listener of my music enters a jungle of sound, dives into a medium of plasma, floats thru waves and currents of digital sonic particles. It is a sonic representation of cyberspace, an equivalent of the holodeck from Star Trek.”-From an interview for newspaper Jurnal De Chisinau

Album Mulberry Forest Voyage can be bought at label Krakilsk mailorder:www.krakilsk.org

MEGATONE album “Pure Land” is now available at online store BeatsDigital. The whole album can be purchased as digital download for the price of just 1.50 UK Pound in mp3 or 2.30 UK Pounds in wav.http://www.beatsdigital.com/megatoneStyle: ambient/cinematicAlbum “Pure Land” is a fusion of vast space classical harmonies with a symphonic sounding, and hyperreal sound design. It reminds of the soundtracks of Dune, Star Wars, Final Fantasy and Blade Runner.